After months of speculation (and frustration) MMS for the iPhone 3G and 3G S is officially arriving on September 25, AT&T has confirmed. This is a full 3 days after summer officially ends (AT&T’s original deadline was “late summer”) as our own MG pointed out earlier today, but like a lot of things with Apple/AT&T, better late than never.
AT&T posted the following comments on its Facebook page:
An Update on iPhone MMS for our Mobility Customers
We know many of our iPhone customers are eager for an update on our rollout schedule for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). We’ve been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches – and that launch date is: September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. MMS will be enabled through a software update on that day.
We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.
We’re riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that’s resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. Wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you to know that we’re working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.
Wow Thanks AT&T! About time!
Wow! Amazing! 10-year old technology coming soon! Behold! I give you…. THE INTERNET FORUM: http://f2bbs.com
Awesome AT&T…yeah!After many months of speculation, MMS for the iPhone 3G and 3G S is officially going to arrive by this month. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities moved AT&T to work on MMS architecture network. This working is to innovate and invest in iPhone’s network to anticipate the growth in usage.
Hope this anticipated growth in data demand from AT&T makes it to deliver more new devices and applications!
AT&T is fail city. But that said, VZ would have buckled under this data volume as well. Interesting to see in a year from now (when VZ presumably gets the iPhone) if they’ve spent the time preparing.
Well, yes, any carrier would have buckled under the pressure, but at least Verizon and Sprint (at least in my area) are capable of speeds faster than 1.5 paltry Mbps. Sprint gets over 6 Mbps on my friend’s blackberry, and Verizon is consistently over 3.
At least with VZ or Sprint we would have had speed while we complained about lack of consistency.
September 25th is just a slap in the face, though. There’s a friggin Apple event on the NINTH for Pete’s sake!
Unless you’re friends blackberry is magical and connects to the 4g network instead of the 3g network, it doesn’t get 6mbps. It might when connected to wifi and he just thinks it’s over the air.
I worked for sprint and their top speed is the same as verizon except with their 4g data cards.
AT&T is also capable of higher than 1.5Mbps because I am able to get higher than that in lower density areas.
And if you think that sprint/verizon would maintain their speeds while having their network crippled then you don’t understand how the cellular network functions, sprints average connection rate and the only rate that they guarantee is about 700kbps, with burst up to 1.2mbps.
In fact, I recently switched from sprint to AT&T because AT&T’s network in my area is more reliable than sprints network, with faster speeds and less dropped calls.
Well we were using a mobile broadband test site, so I guess he was either on my WiFi or somehow Sprint’s network doesn’t work with those sites.
Guess I was wrong.
Also, FWIW, my gripes with AT&T have little to do with reception or dropped calls. In fact I have 3G connectivity most of the time and it works almost all of the time. Here in South Florida we have had the 3G for a long time (my first 3G phone was a LG CU550 back in late 2006, though I didn’t have a data plan), so I guess it’s well established.
In any event, my beef with AT&T has more to do with their rates, their billing practices, and their pathetic internet service.
Even if the other networks in the area aren’t faster, I’d still prefer to be giving my money to a company that doesn’t “un-bundle” my wireless from my home telephone, not send me a bill for a month and a half, and then send me a bill with a due date 2 weeks in the past.
“speeds faster than 1.5 paltry Mbps” may not be possible at such a high volume of usage. How can you really prepare for the launch of something like the iPhone? I would assume the results would have been the same regardless of the US carrier. For the record, I’m no AT&T fanboy.
Awesome AT&T!!! About time!!!! Time for Lunch already http://www.sevenlunches.com
*yawn*
Who even cares? MMS is old and has been around forever (kinda like Copy and Paste).
I’m sure Apple will make this seem like the second coming of the next best feature iPhone is getting.
Excuse me .. Google Voice is ringing on the Tour.
Suck it!
Agreed. I really don’t care about MMS.
Yeh well MANY of us do care about MMS. You are in the great minority.
You’re kidding right? who really cares about MMS when you can send a mail? MMS was hot 5 years ago…
OK, to use MMS as a symbol of the conservatism of ATT, but no way you can transform this technology into something useful.
How about the MAJORITY of people that DO NOT have email on their phones? You know, like your girlfriend, parents and just about everyone else. Just because you and your friends have iPhones does not mean the other 4 billion cell phone users do. Use your brain for five seconds.
p.s. – eMail was hot 35 years ago. So by your logic, we should all be using something retarded like Twitter to share pics.
I post images and video to facebook or twitter. everyone can see it there. No need for MMS.
Yawn. The iphone and MMS are both so old. Can’t believe anyone’s still using either of them.
Yeah, everyone knows that rotary dial analog phones are the new hotness!
Its about fucking time. I guess they finally woke up from their nap ?
Time after time, AT&T just barely makes the grade; that grade being an “F” I really am eager to port my number away from carriers onto Google Voice and then maybe I’ll be free to change phones more freely. Verizon though is looking better and better everyday. The wait is going to kill. Next summer though with LTE will be pretty awesome!
How was that daydream?
Time to wake up and face reality:
LTE was just tested a month ago
LTE will likely launch in a handful of major metro areas sometime Q2.
National coverage will take at least 2 years if not longer and whatever Apple builds will need to be Quad band to have roaming to CDMA EVDO REV A as well a SIM for international roaming.
CDMA based iPhone next year – maybe to likely. LTE based iPhone – don’t count on it until 2011 the earliest.
Very Bad AT & T.You’ve introduced this latest MMS technology (AT & T thinks this is 2002).
We dont care about your MMS AT & T.We are with you just becuase of iPhone.Becuase of At & T ridiculous service & ristriction we can not use SKYPE service over 3G network and we can not use Sling app also.
Are we still using MMS guys? I dont think so.
Yes, but then we have phones that can actually manage it.
1) MMS finctionality has absolutely nothing to do with whether to the iphone can “manage it”
2)whether people use MMS or not isn’t (or shouldn’t be) the point. MMS is a poor way to share, store and manage multimedia files.
ATT service in SF needs to improve!
I’m gonna go glass-half-full on this one and say, at least now we have a hard date. And I’d rather see AT&T at least try to get it right, than just half-ass it.
Of course, (a) I just got my iPhone a few weeks ago, and (b) I was never a big MMS user even with my previous phone, so I will admit that I haven’t been waiting on tenterhooks for it like some people.
For the Northern Hemisphere, as in the United States, Canada and most of Europe, Fall begins on September 22, 2009 at 5:18 pm EDT.
So they are already four days late on their promise.
Title should have been iPhone 3G and 3G S officially getting MMS on September 25 (In the US)
Us folks in Canada have had it for a while, speaks volumes about how bad AT&T really is as I don’t know anyone here that likes the service Rogers provides!
actually, it says nothing and you can’t really compare the two. The data volume generated generated by US users on ATT’s networked is many times greater than anything Rogers experiences. Rogers would need to have at least 1/3 of the entire Canadian population on their network, with iPhones, to come close.
but, yeah, ATT sucks.
I’m with the anti-mms crowd. It never worked for me even when I had a RAZR and I never got the excitement over a postage stamp sized image that is stuck on a phone.
Nowadays I upload and email or just email the image directly.
Because on the iPHone you can save the image off, and it’s the full size of the original.
No word on tethering?
That to me is far more important than MMS…
Agreed. Where’s tethering?
The same place it’s been since june:
http://9to5mac.com/9to5mac-tether-iPhone-hack
Give me tethering or give me DEATH!… or cake.
I’m with you. MMS is for kids. Tethering will actually be useful.
jailbreak, pdanet
Nice to hear that finally Apple and AT&T are bringing this “New” feature to an emerging market called USA…
Oh, good, then will that photo I sent to my iPhone-carting bud finally clear out of the outbox on my POS phone?
5 years after the MMS service was launched, the iPhone will add this service?
ABSOLUTELY OBSOLETE
RTFA
This is great news! I love my iPhone and have been counting down the days… MMS is still relevant if you want to send a quick pic/video to one person instead of broadcast on twitter or facebook. Although I have gotten used to emailing pics or posting on social networks, some friends try to send me MMS.
Thanks AT&T. Now you can work on giving me a signal at my home. I’ve lived without a landline using Sprint for the past 10 years; don’t make me get one now.
tinmanfromoz@rocketmail.com
MMS…does anyone besides kids use this consistently?
It is not only about consistent use… it is having a feature which can be used at any time.
All I can say is…finally!
Hah, in Australia we have had tethering and MMS as soon as the iPhone released the functionality – our carriers were supporting it all along, it was just Apple we were waiting on.
yeah and you have like 5 people in your whole country. If you use an iphone in montana you’d get screaming service. Pop in to NY or SF and you are SOL.
Looking forward for this release!!!!!!!!!!!! Really great news for me.
Why via a Software Update? Other carries didn’t have a Software Update to enable MMS. It just worked. On day 1.
No thanks, I’ll pass.
“iPhone 3GS”
Shenanigans!!! Shenanigans!!! AT&T’s network capacity issues are a political and financial issue rather than a technological one.. AT&T STOP BEING SUCH CHEAP ASSES AND JUST UPGRADE YOUR NETWORK!!!
AT&T is playing the same game that the last mile DSL and cable providers are trying to imply that the problem is technical. That’s BS!
look, I’m no ATT fan, but calling “cheap asses” is a little ridiculous. According to a NYT article they are going to end up spending 18 Billion (with a “B”) on network improvements and maintenance this year. Not so cheap.
Oh great, since I could care less about people sending me low quality pictures, I had a legitimate excuse with “I don’t have MMS, quit sending me this crap.” Maybe I can disable it on my iPhone. It’s a kid’s feature. I need serious business capabilities, like tethering. Or multi-tasking.
BTW, for all of you Verizon fanboys…they’re never going to get the iPhone. The economies of scale that maximize Apple’s profits are building one phone for the world. Verizon’s CDMA network may or may not be the greatest, but it’s an American thing. Last I checked, America is not the world for cell phones (in fact, I’d say the US is backwards when it comes to mobile technology). And Apple has AT&T right where they want them…mere vendors for their technology. AT&T is a commodity that Apple will keep forcing into a one-way relationship. Who knows, maybe next year when the exclusive is done, Apple will just buy bandwidth from AT&T in the US, and market everything as Apple branded. Verizon is not in this picture.
check again, b/c mobile technology is most other countries is lacking. even places like Japan and Korea that people assume are light years ahead. Yes they have some features not available in the US, but not many – mobile payments is probably the biggest one. Interfaces on Japanese mobile phones are horrible. Mobile web is wap-like and difficult to use (not the “real internet” like you get on iphone or blackberry etc). And innovative handset design is almost non-existent (think cookie-cutter flip phone design).
oh, and Japan and Korea also use CDMA so it’s not just an “american thing”.
About damn time. Now if I could SMS a preset group (like I could on my blackberry), I’d be happy.
Ok, so what about us early adopters that haven’t dropped more coin on yet another version of the iPhone. I’d like to pick up a 3GS but can’t part with the hard earned duckets when I have a sneaking suspicion(Based on the story of the guy who “committed suicide” in China after he lost the prototype for the 4th gen iPhone) the next one will be out the same time they have been year after year and I bet it will be COMPLETELY new. New case, new hardware and a few other features that are bleeding edge for AT&T but probably 2-3 years old for everyone else.
Everyone needs to chill on ATT. They are handling amounts of data that are unseen by any other telecom. They are making improvements. Give it time. We are on the bleeding edge here people.
Every other phone on ATT can send MMS. There’s no excuse.
yes but att’s iphone users use a disproportionate amount of data. enabling MMS will only increase that amount.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5yIVgj0VVA&feature=channel
Hey, what about the original iPhone? Am I SOL forever?
Also, who cares about MMS? Make the thing work in my office, will ya?
Take 15 minutes of your time this holiday weekend an jailbreak it. I have T-Mobile and the ActivateMMS2G package on Cydia. I’ve had working MMS on T-Mobile for weeks now.
I try not to use MMS, but it’s nice for friends receiving pics from with dumbphones and no data plan.
Phil – I’m sorry your supposed to be a good Apple fan and promptly buy the latest iPhone every year whatever the cost be damned!
The EDGE based iPhone is pretty much end of life other then OS fixes. You’ll likely start seeing Apps not support it next year, if not sooner as many now are coded for just 3GS.
Another one of Apple’s numerous innovations.
I’m just waiting for the coming day.
Yes, You are right MMS is for kids but i still use it..:D
MMS is NOT just for kids.
It is for women with low self-esteem and phones without email to send naked pictures.
…so yes, it’s a much-needed feature.
Now how about TechCrunch keeps its promise of actually releasing the CrunchPad since they were suppose to have an “event” in August.
MMS is such a huge success, nobody is waiting for iPhone with MMS.
MMS is a fail as it is too expensive.
Well i think now a days, world is top just because of MMS for iPhone. world does not care for it. Users use different phone if they want to use the MMS feature with their mobile carriers. ANyway… i would say not a bad move by AT & T
This is a JOKE really! What carrier in the WORLD finally support a feature that’s been around for as long as we can remember. Then finally supports it over 2 years later! Wait still not yet…
Do we really still use MMS? The answer is yes, we do! I get people with non-smartphone all the time wanting to send me MMS’s, but oh sorry can’t. My cutting edge, state of the art iPhone doesn’t have the feature. Can you hear the laughs in the background…
For all those people who say oh…it’s a none issue. Then why, oh why, did it take over 2 years and counting to support MMS I ask you???
I just recieved a text from AT&T that states AT&T Free Msg: Picture & video messaging (MMS) will be available for iPhone on 9/25. While we prepare your account for MMS capability, the current “view my message” experience will be turned off but your ability to send and receive text messages will not be affected.
Ok, so the 25th ahs arrived and I still don’t have MMS?? Yes, I synced my iPhone and even requested to check for updates and still nothing. So I guess AT&T (which is no surprise to me) is not sticking to their word about the launch. Someitmes I wonder why I BLOW $175 a month for this toy, I mean phone.
I just noticed that it says it’s the 24th on my post but it’s 1:21 AM here in Houston, so it’s definitely the 25th, just sayin.